Philosophy

 

After many years of working in schools, especially with students identified as having behavioural difficulties, it has become clear that there are no easy answers or magic bullets. Some interventions can seem to work in the short term, but lose their efficacy and the behaviour returns. Sometimes, after multiple and intense behavioural interventions, some students did not improve and for others their behaviour deteriorated. As a result, these students were often prescribed more medication and more restrictive interventions.

 

After a while, it seemed to make sense to stop looking for answers to the question, “What can we do to fix this student who is misbehaving?” Rather, the question that we started to ask ourselves was, “Why is the student behaving in this way?” 

 

In 2002, we were introduced to the Attachment-based Developmental Paradigm developed by Dr. Gordon Neufeld. His paradigm provides a comprehensive framework for understanding human behaviour that is steeped in neuroscientific findings. The paradigm integrates three key theories of human development: maturation, vulnerability and attachment. When considering a student’s behaviour using these three lenses, it becomes easier to understand the “why” of most challenging behaviours. This understanding then leads to effective and long lasting interventions.

 

MATURATION: Great strides were being made in the area of neuroscience. The data were showing that the human brain takes a long time to fully develop, well into the mid to late twenties, if all goes well. With that knowledge, it became easier to understand the “immature” behaviour of all students in our schools. Immature brains will make immature decisions and they will make mistakes even if they “know better”. This new information confirmed our decision to adopt a developmental approach to understanding and intervening with students with behavioural challenges.

 

VULNERABILITY: Research on the effect of trauma and chronic stress on the developing brain and its implication for behaviour was coming to the fore. It helped clarify underlying causes for behavioural difficulties experienced by some children, especially those living in conditions of chronic stress caused by adverse childhood experiences.

 

ATTACHMENT: The role of attachment, as essential to human development, is taking more prominence in our thinking. Good teachers already knew that if they had a  good relationship  with their students that it was easier to teach them. What is clearer now, is that some students, because of their histories, have disruptions in their attachment world, which adds to their behavioural difficulties, making it more challenging to guide and instruct them.

 

These influences confirmed what we had already come to understand, that when students behave in ways that adults find challenging, they are just giving us a message that something is distressing them. We contend that the role of adults is to heed this distress. It is then up to the adults to provide developmentally appropriate, attachment-safe interventions and trauma-responsive interventions to help all students in the school setting, especially those whose behaviour challenges us the most.

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